November 2010 Babies

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anyone else taking a dha supplement?

Sweetmammajamma wrote:

I thought I'd read somewhere a few months ago that your body or baby only starts absorbing dha in your third trimester, and it helps brain and eye developement. So I bought some along with a new bottle of prenatals this weekend since I ran out. And honestly I'm not going to lie I swear the dha pills are making me feel good. I can't explain it. I know it doesn't make any sense, it's not doing anything for me considering my eyes and brain are already developed..but i dunno. Anyway, did I just spend 20 dollars for nothing? I figure anything I can do to help babies eye developement, considering her daddys blind and my eye sight is less than perfect...sigh. Whatever. Every kittle bit counts right?

@Sweetmammajamma You are not wasting your money. My first OB recommended DHA with my first because although studies weren't out yet, she said she noticed advancement in babies and kids whose mothers took DHA. I took it the entire time I was pregnant and breastfeeding. My son has always been very advanced. He was talking at 10 months and speaking in small sentences with over 500 words in his vocabulary at 12 months old. I have taken DHA religiously with this one as well.

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Ih8WTE

@Sweetmammajamma I dont think you are wasting money. I take one too. The prenatal that I've taken for this entire pregnancy is two pills - one regular prenatal vitamin and one dha supplement.

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twentythree

@Sweetmammajamma I've been taking them ever since finding out. It's just fish oils which are great for you anyhow and I took them a lot before getting pregnant too.

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Sweetmammajamma

@Dweeb Crap. So this is something I shouldve started 6 months ago? Damn. Oh well, better late than never.

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cedes314

@Sweetmammajamma i used to work for a supplement company, selling to dr's and licensed health care practitioners! One of our most referred products was fish oil (EPA/DHA) i have taken Omega 3's in the form of fish oil for YEARSDHA is now in many baby formulas bc of how good it is for neurological development. but even though your brain is developed, DHA helps your neurological health as well as protection against lower rates of dementia/alzheimers , it lowers cholesterol. the EPA in fish oil is also an anti inflammatory.you also get the benefit of blood sugar regulation as it helps the cells with the uptake of sugar.

there are MANY benefits to Omega 3's! i take them every day. i also give my daughter a DHA supplement in the form of flavored chewables i also give her a child dose of Vit D and have since she was born. i take my prenatal, Fish oil, probiotics, calcium w/ mag and Vit D(at night time) and an extra dose of Vit D everyday.

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ljsimmons

@Sweetmammajamma I have been taking one, albeit a generic. I take the Target brand plant-based one. I started taking it during the 1st trimester. No one would give me a straight answer on it- if I should take or not, but I decided that it wouldn't hurt anybody. I do remember feeling better after I started taking it. I never forget it now.

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hapaisissy

@Sweetmammajamma When I was taking the prenatals prescribed by my Dr I didn't take any additional vitamins. Since I moved to over-the-counter vitamins, I added the DHA supplement. My Dr said it wouldn't hurt.

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Celestial_1

My prenatal vitamin already has dha in it. My dr made sure the one I took had it :-) so I'm glad u picked it up tally!

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preggosAgain

@Sweetmammajamma I have been taking prenatal vitamins, DHA supplement, and occasionally an extra calcium/vit d supplement. DHA is good to take.... good for you and good for baby!Â

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Jeslynn11

@Sweetmammajamma I've been on omega3 since week 5. It's supposed to make baby smarter, better brain development and also help with any kind of depression or hormonal imbalance women may have during pregnancy.I swear it's worked. I feel like my baby is smart and responding well to my little poke games.My step moms from Taiwan, she says some poor countries all they eat is fish and how the people are so happier with having the bare minimum in life.In our country we have so many options. Junk food... So we are apparently moodier.Made sense.The only down side is FISH BURPS!! No matter what I do I burp fish for two hours after taking one.. Yuck

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jvs2010

@Sweetmammajamma I take a plant based DHA supplement. I also did the entire time I bf'd DS and now he drinks milk with DHA and Omega-3.

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emmarose903

@Sweetmammajamma Like KareBear, I have a prescribed prenatal that is 2 pills, one being DHA. Although, I'm not new to fish oil. As pps have said, omega 3s are very good for you!

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andreawtr

@Sweetmammajamma I've been taking DHA this whole pregnancy. I haven't heard that baby only starts absorbing Dha in the last trimester but I have heard that's the most important time to take it. I figure it doesn't hurt to take it the whole time. I get the Women's One a day prenatal that comes with a dha pill as well. It's 14 dollars at Walmart I think.

Brain development. In a study of 98 pregnant women, researchers at the School of Pediatrics and Child Health at the University of Western Australia found that two years after birth, the children whose mothers had received a high dose of fish oil (including 2.2 g of DHA) in the second half of their pregnancy had higher scores in tests of their eye-hand coordination. Another study, from the University of Oslo in Norway, found that four-year-olds scored better on IQ tests if their mothers took DHA supplements during pregnancy and breastfeeding. The results of other studies also suggest positive effects of maternal DHA supplementation on cognitive outcomes, such as motor development at 30 months of age and attention span at 5 years of age.

Visual development. A study of 167 pregnant women conducted at the University of British Columbia's Department of Pediatrics suggested a correlation between visual acuity in two-month-old babies and their mother's DHA intake during their second trimester and third trimester of pregnancy. Reviews of other studies have found mixed results, possibly due to differences in how DHA was provided to the pregnant women and how visual acuity was measured.

Higher birth weight. Researchers at Maastricht University in the Netherlands studied 782 mother-baby pairs and found "significant positive associations" between the mother's DHA levels (especially early in pregnancy) and the baby's weight and head circumference at birth. Other studies suggested that DHA consumption during pregnancy may have a small benefit in reducing the likelihood of repeat preterm birth among women who previously had preterm birth.

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J_K_K

@Sweetmammajamma I don't think it's a waste of money. My prenatals are already packed with DHA, otherwise I probably would have taken a supplement, too.

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slnonnem

@Sweetmammajamma I bought some supplements with DHA, but I was going to start taking them this week (since we've just entered the last trimester - I must have read the same article as you did). I also try to eat fish (salmon or shrimp are on the safe-to-eat list) at least once or twice a week for the same purpose. Now I am excited to start taking them, and maybe I'll start feeling better too!

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Unicorns77

@Sweetmammajamma Mine have had it in them from the get go....here's a link to the one I take.

@Sweetmammajamma I've been taking fish oil for years. My doctor recommended it and also recommended taking it while you breastfeed (if you plan to).

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PenguinMama

@Sweetmammajamma Not a waste at all, the benefits are definitely there for you and baby. I started on a non-DHA generic and then when I did get pregnant got like a month's worth of samples from my doc, all of them with DHA. I kind of tag teamed on the DHAs & generics until I ran out, then I bought the One A Day prenatal/DHA two pill combo. That DHA pill tasted like straight up fish oil pills, which I took pre-pregnancy. When I went to restock on those they were out of One A Day so I got the Target generic, Up & Up, and the DHA pill tastes like coconut!

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sarakl

@Jeslynn11 I was totally going to mention the fish burps! They are so annoying! I don't even like fish, so it's particularly awful for me...

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